In a competitive business economy, advertising dollars are used to fund a large number of goods and services in exchange for product exposure. Among these are included radio, television, newspapers and even long distance calling plans. In all of these situations, advertisers agree to exchange advertising dollars for the mere chance to mention and promote their products to potential customers. For example, an advertiser might agree to fund sixty minutes of long distance calls to be distributed among customers in exchange for requiring the customers to listen to the advertiser's advertisement before those long distance calls are connected. Another example is an advertiser for a soft drink company providing all the beverages for a sporting arena at a discounted rate, or even free of charge, in exchange for the exclusive rights to distribute beverages in the arena. In this example, the advertiser recoups the money lost in providing free beverages, and potentially earns far more, through the advertising of his product to the spectators exclusive of his competitors.
Intense competition has forced advertisers to find new and ingenious ways of inundating society with their advertisements. One idea that has recently gained increased popularity is subsidizing the purchase of goods or services by advertisers. In exchange for the subsidized purchase the customer receives, the advertiser is permitted to promote his own products or services in relation to the purchased goods or services. An example of such an arrangement can be found on Internet sites. In these situations, those who wish to host such sites may have the cost of posting the sites subsidized by an advertiser. In exchange for receiving a subsidized posting, the one hosting the site must also post advertisements for the advertiser.
Although the idea of subsidizing the purchase of goods or services appears sound, some goods or services do not easily lend themselves to such subsidizing by advertisers. In a specific example, if a product advertiser sought to subsidize the sale of printers to the public, perhaps those used with computers or even facsimile machines, the price of such printers to the ultimate consumer could be reduced. In exchange for the discounted price, the customer would have to agree to have printed with each of his documents an advertisement endorsing the advertiser's product or services. In this example, both parties benefit from the subsidizing of the printer. The customer, who might not ordinarily be able to afford a printer, gets the printer at a reduced price while the advertiser has his products or services advertised to all those who receive the documents printed on the subsidized printer.
Unfortunately, although both the customer and the advertiser benefit from such an arrangement, the advertiser subsidizing the printers will likely face great risk that their advertising dollars will be lost. The risk faced by such advertisers is that some customers may attempt to bypass the required advertisement while still reaping the benefits of the discounted printer subsidized by the advertiser. For example, the customer might shut the printer off after his documents are printed in an attempt to prevent the advertisements from being printed. Alternatively, the customer may attempt to “trick” the printer into printing a blank page or blank area in place of the advertisement by altering the programming or hardware of the printer or computer. In other examples the subsidized device is not simply an ink printer, but a device for placing data onto a tangible medium, such as the recording device for a voice messaging system. In this example, tampering may prevent the advertisement from being heard while still using the system at a subsidized cost.
When successful tampering occurs, the advertising dollars spent to subsidize the purchase of printers (or any device suited for placing data on a tangible medium) would be irretrievably lost. As a result, a business model wherein an advertiser can subsidize the purchase of printers, whether they be for computers, facsimile machines or other devices for storing data, is unlikely to be developed because of the risk of altered or removed advertisements. Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a better way to ensure that advertisements are incorporated into printouts from a printer or other data recording device.